As a kid while not on the drums in our basement or on the slopes of our local ski resort with friends, I experimented with film making. You know, the cellulose kind (since anything digital had not yet been invented). Specifically, stop motion film making like the late Ray Harryhausen (i.e. King Kong) produced in his day. Perhaps it was nerdy at the time but then again George Lucas certainly found it a lucrative venture, didn’t he.
Just for kicks, after graduating high school I sent Lucasfilm (located in Marin County, California) a copy of the video above. If you saw some of his very early work you wouldn’t think mine was so shabby. Several weeks later, I received a form letter from Lucasfilm letting me know they were not hiring at the time (politely telling me thanks, but no thanks). I wasn’t anticipating a job offer anyway, I just wanted a piece of mail on their letterhead (I had kept it as a memento but presently that letter escapes me). Alas, a career in film making was not meant to be.
Well, on to the video. The first clip is of a "shuttlecraft bay" made out of balsa wood opening its doors....followed by a makeshift star field....followed by a finished model of the shuttlecraft bay. I think for late 1970’s it looks fairly convincing. If you look closely, you can see tiny little LED lights flashing in the inside corners, although the video quality is quite poor so perhaps not. I really had no idea how I was going to get a tiny ship to fly out of there….hmm. Alas, this clip alone took a lot of time and since other things began consuming other aspects of my life, I abandoned the project. Good thing, huh! The second clip is of me as a teen with my friends’ Camaro, motorcycle, and a bunch of leaves, mostly stop motion. You use what you have at the time. The third is a G.I. Joe stop motion attempt. The joints of the "doll" made it easy to move a frame at a time therefore it was a perfect stop motion candidate. Bear in mind that these few seconds also took days to film. Unfortunately, I really messed up the light exposure on this one as I discovered only after receiving the film back from the developer. I wonder if Lucas also had that problem.
These were fun little creative experiments which will never be repeated again now that all things digital has consumed our world.
Enjoy another part of me.
Jim
Old School Stop Motion